I build loudspeakers, both home and car. But, mostly car subwoofers, amplifiers, head units etc. But also home speakers for home theaters.
I absolutely love it. Music is a big passion of mine (despite never learning to play an instrument). I love it because every project has so many challenges. I love electrical work and designing a system from scratch and then getting to see it actually work iis awesome. It’s like little engineering challenges all throughout. Very engaging for me.
There’s also a lot of wood working involved. Making a functional piece of furniture and getting to expirement with different techniques is a lot of fun.
My dad used to do this as a side hustle. It’s how I learned to solder.
This is neat af
How would someone start learning on this path? I tried to get on this by myself but all the online articles I could find were directed at people with electrical experience, and to someone like me electricity is still magic.
The best beginner guide I’ve found is bcae1. It’s just some dudes blog, but he made it up as a basic electronics lesson plan with a focus on car audio. It’ll help you to get a really good idea of how everything works together. I still regularly use the site as reference.
On YouTube, there’s a channel called Car Audio Fabrication . He explains alot of stuff very well and will give suggestions on what equipment to buy. He puts a lot of focus on making a build look clean and professional.
For home stuff, parts express is the defacto DIY audio store. They have a lot of resources on their site from blog posts, how to guides, and even customer projects.
Crutchfield is easily one of the best sources for both home and car. Excellent customer support, virtually unbeatable. Lots of resources like parts express (maybe more). They do tend to carry more mainstream products. Which is fine. It’s all quality products, but I do find that you’re often paying more for Crutchfield. Both because a lot of their products carry name weight and are more expensive because of that, and because their customer support is good enough to warrant a little extra.
For car stuff, since I do competition grade builds, I like sounds solutions audio and Down 4 Sound. D4S’ owner is very active on YouTube and Instagram.
Well, that’s a lot of good places to start. Electricity is magic. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s not. Even after you “understand” it, it’s still magic. The last link up give you is for Sparkfun. They’re a retailer like parts express and Crutchfield with excellent guides/resources and community showcases. They’re focus is on low voltage electronics like arduino and raspberry pi.
Anyway, have fun learning. If you have questions, feel free to DM me. I love talking about this stuff.
Retro computing. Programming things like a Commodore 64 in Assembly on the machine. It’s a wonderful experience and pretty removed from modern programming.
Programming was my hobby, now it’s my job so instead of having a hobby I just work too much
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Yeah it was a fun hobby too when I was in school. But when I started working as a programmer, I don’t want anything to do with it after work hours, or else I get terrible burnout. I’ve tried a couple of hobbies but now I just do video games and learning guitar.
Gaming - everyone here has pretty much said what could be said about this one. I always liked doing things, so i find it more fun than movies
MMA - I like to punch and grab. that’s it. it’s just kinda fun for the sake of it. I recommend it if anyone is looking for a cool hobby to get active with
blender grease pencil - if they made a sequel to drawing it would be the grease pencil in blender. it can completely blur the lines between 2d, 3d, and polygonal models. I ain’t good at it yet, but i like to think one day I’ll use it to animate something pretty neato
Electronics and basically anything that involves electricity, i just love to find out how broken stuff works and fixing it, or just making stubborn equipment do what it’s supposed to do; so yeah basically some people do crosswords, i make 1 working tv from 2 broken ones :-)
Magnet Fishing.
I’m not entirely sure why I enjoy it so much but I suppose it’s a combination of different things. It gives me a dopamine hit in a similar way to opening a loot crate, the difference being I’m mostly getting rusty, muddy scrap rather than anything valuable, and some stuff can be quite interesting. It’s very satisfying pulling out large objects like bicycles, or even just big pieces of iron. It’s nice to feel like I’m cleaning up waterways too, but that’s not what attracts me to it.
Also magnets are cool.
I’m assuming the magnets you use are quite powerful. And heavy? How do you go about transporting them to where you use them? Any dangers in having them in cars/near your electronics? Or have I watched Breaking Bad too many times…
The one I have has a 600kg pull force, but I would like a stronger one. Obviously you have to be able to pull whatever gets attached to it off, which sometimes needs a good yank. It’s not particularly heavy, maybe 1kg. Usually I just stick it in a bucket attached to the rope, but I keep it in the polystyrene and box it came in when it’s at home or if I’m travelling far. The only danger having it in the car is it sticking to it, but that’s easily avoided. Takes a good yank to get it off if it does get stuck to a piece of steel as large as a car body though.
Electronics are never really a concern, the only thing the magnet is likely to come close to is my phone but I try to remember to not have it in my pockets while magnet fishing, and that’s really because I don’t want to drop it in the water. Fixed magnets have to move over a conductor to induce a current, and it would be quite small I think. The electomagnet in that breaking bad episode is very large, probably with a pull force magnitudes higher than a fishing magnet, and I can’t speak for the shows accuracy (I don’t actually remember what they used it for now).
This was really informative, thanks!
You’re welcome, thanks for being interested! If you happen to be interested in seeing some finds or just generally hearing more about magnet fishing, I’ve started posting in a (very small, but I hope it will grow) community here [email protected]
I’ll be following!
I recently got back into collecting physical comics as a hobby. It’s fun going to comic shops and/or used bookstores and flipping through all the back issues to try and find certain runs. I also enjoy experiencing new / current issues when they come out. I’ve been delving into the indies recently, and it’s opened up a whole new world for me.
Other than that, I’ve been trying to get into woodworking. Just need a few more tools before I can really start. I seem to have a habit of being drawn to the more expensive hobbies…
Videogames, but specifically Rainbow Six: Siege. I and my stack are really really good. Not pros, but I play with some guys that could pretty viably go pro with the right support structure around them, and frankly, they consider me to be a large pillar for that support structure.
There’s no other game like it. The instant decision making, the endless possibilities and ways a round plays out. The absurd skill gap between someone good at just one aspect of the game and someone new. The tons of different aspects of the game you CAN be good at. It’s endlessly satisfying.
I act as a Flex-IGL for my stack. Basically, I tell them what to do, and pick whatever we need to make that a success. Some of them main Thermite, some pick good guns, I go for support or intel or vertical or secondary hard breach, or second entry depending on the needs of the round. We get into game and I make calls about the setup we’re attacking into and how we’re going to take a round. They play around that. I call for specific support, they rotate to make it happen. “One in Logistics, Jackal open the hatch, Sledge open Logistics-Construction wall, I’ll cut off the exit” and they just trust my calls and do it. Nothing in that game is anywhere near as satisfying as seeing my own attack plans pan out into a strong, attack sided win for us. On defense, I call site rotation and setups, if we want to do standard or weird shit we pulled from others or came up with ourselves. I play cameras to make sure everyone has all the info they need, and sit myself in the linchpin position for a defense win. My mechanics aren’t all that amazing, but guys who would be described as absolute gunners “if he sees you you’re gonna die” don’t just play with me but actively WANT to play with me because I turn their lethality into a true tool used to pry victory from any team we come up against
You sir just explained being a non commissioned officer.
Cooking - control over every ingredient, tastes better every time, looks better every time, rewarding, great activity with (or for) friends, generally respected among everyone, food science is a long rabbit hole to dig into
Running - relatively cheap sport, dopamine rush, good time to listen to podcasts, many events in the area to get you motivated, some dogs can join
Hiking - being in nature, difficulty can be varied easily, great with friends, great alone, most dogs can join
Gravel/Road bike - go far, quick, also dopamine rush, everyone hates you, downsides: can get pretty expensive, maintaining the bike is super annoying (in my opinion)
Gaming - no explanation needed, downsides: too much to choose (FOMO), feels like a waste of time
Board games/DnD - Like gaming but does not feel like a waste of time, great with friends and family, also some nice solo games (which I’m starting to get into now)
Programming - Very cheap, can make cool stuff, can turn into job, downsides: people ask you to fix their printer or program stuff for free, not a hobby anymore if turned into job
I have loads of hobbies, two main ones are coastal rowing (big fun, plus I’ve learned a lot about nautical stuff like tides, navigation, knots) and beekeeping (big fun and honey). Also photography, knitting, computer tinkering, websites, reading, gardening, baking… basically I’m never bored. I used to add travel to that list, but I haven’t been outside the country since before Covid.
Programming was my hobby like the other person, I also now work as a software developer so my hobby now is walking. I don’t want to look at a screen after work.
I’ve had countless hobbies though (ADHD) and to name a few:
- Minecraft
- Walking
- Photography
- Baking
- Cooking
- 3D Printing
- Factorio
- Chess
- Spanish
- Running
- Gym
- Flying drones
- Drugs
I guess what i enjoy is learning new things and sinking money into them haha
The biggest thing I don’t like about working in the tech industry is that you’re expected to make your job your hobby. If you’re not developing yourself in your free time, you can feel like you’re falling behind. And jobs expect you to keep up with all the monthly trends that come out.
I can only speak from personal experience and that is limited as I’ve only been at one company, which is less than 10 employees where we take on clients as needed.
Here there is no expectation to be studying at home, unless you’re not progressing as you would expect. In fact my boss told me that it’s good that I don’t have the brain power at home as it means I am using it at work which I am being paid for.
The same for the technologies too. Current tech stack is C# .net with GraphQL, and React Typescript for the client. They take the approach that we won’t try every new shiny framework that comes out and we will offer long term support to our clients and thus we will work consistently across all our projects and they get refined over time.
So if my first project utilises a useful hook or component that would be carried through to the next project. So each new project starts as a copy of our last project.
That way I could go and work on an app they made before I started but I would be able to pick it up quickly as everything is consistent.
Not sure if I explained that well.
The core of my hobbies is learning how something is made or done. I learned to bake bread and sourdough by making tons of loaves. I learned to make my own beer. 3d printing is my peek into manufacturing industrially even though its a mere taste. I do meal prep to understand packaging and distribution.
I wouldn’t say it’s fun, most of the time, but it is incredibly satisfying and fulfilling.
How? Why? What? Never stop asking.
Weightlifting -> Fun, health and strength Hiking -> fun, health, take a break from the noise in the world Reading -> fun, entertainment, helps to develop the mind Gaming -> just for fun Music -> kinda like a safe place (I’m kinda an audiophile, but a reasonable lol)
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Video game and weightlifting.
Video games are really fun for me, but weightlifting is like an addiction I can’t break. I rarely want to work out but if I don’t, then I end up feeling worse, and right after I do workout, it feels amazing.
I have two main categories, pleasant distractions, and screaming at the gods.
Pleasant distractions are things I enjoy in my free time like video games, reading, juggling, lock picking.
Screaming at the gods are things I do because I need something so physical and dangerous that it requires 100% of my focus. Skateboarding, snowboarding, long distance motorcycle trips. These are things I do to get work and other stresses out of my head for a time, as I can’t afford to have my attention split.
I like those two categories and how you take up both, a lot
